Modelling the Relationship between Visual Short-Term Memory Capacity and Recall Ability

Previous cognitive modelling work has suggested that the decline of short-term memory (STM) capacity is the dominant factor of age-related decline on recall ability. We report the results of a set of experiments investigating in further detail the effect of varying short-term memory capacity on the recall of chess positions using the CHREST cognitive architecture, and demonstrate a good qualitative match for human data. We then use these results to suggest a potential functional reason for the size of STM capacity in humans and go on to explore the relationships between STM capacity, ageing, knowledge, presentation time, and recall ability.